Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 22 May 2026, DRC Minister of Mines Louis Watum Kabamba signed Arrêté ministériel N° 00305/CAB.MIN/MINES/01/2026, imposing an immediate and total three-month suspension of all mining activity (industrial, semi-industrial, and artisanal) in the Mwenga and Shabunda territories of South Kivu province. Grounds cited: illegal extraction, mineral fraud, and financing of armed groups through uncontrolled extraction revenues. The General Inspectorate of Mines was deployed on a special verification mission; the moratorium is set to expire approximately 22 August 2026.

On March 29, 2026, the DRC Conseil des Ministres approved a draft decree modifying and supplementing Decree n°11/28 of June 7, 2021, which establishes the statute of the Centre d'Expertise, d'Evaluation et de Certification (CEEC). The reform formally enshrines CEEC as a "certification authority" recognized in law — a role previously exercised in practice but lacking explicit statutory grounding. CEEC gains explicit authority to determine the physicochemical characteristics of all mineral substances produced on DRC territory, covering the nature, chemical composition, geographic origin, and legal provenance of exports across all strategic minerals including cobalt, copper, coltan, cassiterite, gold, and tantalum.

On 12 February 2025, DRC Minister of Mines Kizito Pakabomba signed an arrêté classifying 38 mining concessions in Masisi (North Kivu) and Kalehe (South Kivu) territories as "red zones," imposing a total prohibition on artisanal extraction, transport, and commercialization of coltan (tantalite-columbite), cassiterite (tin ore), and wolframite (tungsten ore). The measure responded directly to the December 2024 UN Group of Experts report documenting that M23/AFC armed groups were controlling and taxing coltan extraction at Rubaya — at least 150 tonnes/month fraudulently exported to Rwanda and blended with legitimate Rwandan production, constituting what the UN described as the largest contamination ever recorded of mineral supply chains in the Great Lakes region. The initial six-month ban (12 February – 11 August 2025) was extended for a further six months by Minister Louis Watum Kabamba's prorogation arrêté of 3 November 2025 (retroactive from 12 August 2025). DRC accounts for approximately 60–70% of global tantalum mine supply; Rubaya alone is one of the world's highest-density artisanal coltan producing zones.

Cabinet Secretary for Mining issued comprehensive royalty-collection regulations under section 183 of the Mining Act 2016, published as Legal Notice No. 106 of 2024 in Kenya Gazette Vol. CXXVI No. 98 of 5 July 2024 (commenced 3 July 2024). The regulations standardise royalty rates by mineral and royalty-base methodology (gross sales value), set a 120-day payment window with CBK-rate compounding penalties for late payment, and codify the 70/30 national-county allocation split with the county portion further divided 60% county / 20% community development / 20% landowner royalties. Companion to the October 2023 lifting of the four-year mining-licence moratorium and reclassification of REE, niobium, lithium, graphite and coltan as "strategic minerals" requiring case-by-case licensing through the National Mining Corporation. Subsequently declared unconstitutional by the High Court in September 2025 for failure to meet public-participation requirements (see amendments).

Burundi's Assemblée Nationale promulgated Loi n°1/19 of 4 August 2023, amending the 2013 Mining Code (Loi n°1/21 of 15 October 2013). The law introduces mandatory 16% no-cost state equity participation in all large-mine joint ventures — rising by 5% at each permit renewal — caps individual operators to two permits per mineral substance, and imposes a 0.5% of turnover municipal development levy. Implementing decrees and orders followed: Décret n°100/224 of 23 November 2023 (artisanal/small-scale licensing), and Joint Ministerial Order n°760/540/1443 of 11 December 2023 (fiscal regime). Burundi holds East Africa's second-largest coltan reserves and significant cassiterite, gold, REE, nickel, and phosphate deposits, making this reform structurally significant for regional critical-mineral supply chains.

On 27 January 2018 the DRC National Assembly adopted Loi n° 18/001, comprehensively amending the foundational 2002 Mining Code (Loi n° 007/2002); President Joseph Kabila promulgated the law on 9 March 2018, published in the Journal Officiel special issue of 28 March 2018, with implementing Décret n° 18/024 (Règlement Minier) following on 8 June 2018. The Code introduces a 10% royalty on minerals designated "strategic" by the Council of Ministers — cobalt, coltan, lithium, and germanium confirmed — up from the 2% standard non-ferrous rate, and raises all standard mining royalties (non-ferrous 2→3.5%, precious metals 2.5→3.5%, precious stones 4→6%). The state's mandatory free-carry interest in new mining projects is doubled from 5% to 10% (Article 71), with a further 10% paid-carry option creating an effective 20% state-participation floor; contract-stability guarantees are simultaneously curtailed from 10 to 5 years (Article 276), explicitly invalidating pre-existing stabilisation clauses. As the foundational statute governing every DRC mining-rights grant, royalty-rate setting, and export-control delegation, the 2018 Code is the parent authority for ARECOMS (established 2019 under its strategic-minerals framework) and the legal basis for both the 2025 cobalt export-ban/quota regime and the 2025 artisanal-processing suspension — making it the mandatory upstream context for the entire filed DRC action cluster.